Stilfontein community leaders raise safety concerns about plan to extract illegal miners

JOHANNESBURG - Community leaders in Stilfontein have again raised safety concerns ahead of plans to extract hundreds of illegal miners from an abandoned shaft in the area.

A fresh rescue operation, led by the government, kicked off on Tuesday to bring illegal miners back to the surface as part of a year-long Operation Vala Umgodi.

It’s expected to be several days before the technical teams drop a cage into the shaft to bring the first group of illegal miners up.

Some illegal miners fearing arrest are believed to be refusing to resurface.

While technical reports are not public, Khuma community leader, Johannes Qankase, said he’s anxious about the plan in place.

 "All of us here, we can see that it’s an old shaft and there is big machinery that is going to be there, so we are very worried that something bad is going to happen. If something falls in the old shaft, many people will get hurt."